Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge - View Single Post

Ohana · 09-01-2010, 08:10 PM

FISHIONADO:

Thanks for starting this topic. It is definitely something worth having a good discussion about.

Having fished for Threshers for the last 10 years, I would say that the fishery from recreational fisherman pressure has increased due to the increase in number of boaters (especially in the middle of the last decade) and the relatively close inshore nature of the sharks has made them easy to target for a larger percentage of fisherman (no long travel using up expensive gas). I know that when I first started catch and release of T-sharks, you rarely heard about it on the local fishing boards, but as more people started posting the knowledge of this fishery, when was the optimum time to fish, techniques/locations, and the ease at catching them, it seemed like every spring everyone who had a boat was out trolling for T-sharks and were showing off their catch being weighed rather then releasing the sharks.

Does this have an impact on the fishery? Hard to say as removal of certain numbers may actually improve the health of the population as there is less competition for food/ decreased cannibalization increasing the recruitment size. But considering that T-sharks give birth to living young, their litter size is small (2 to 4 pups), and that they take between 7 and 13 years to reach sexual maturity would make them more vulnerable to overfishing then other large gamefish, such as marlin, swordfish, and white seabass which produce large number of eggs and mature at a faster rate. As off the Southern California coast it appears to be the T-shark pupping grounds, both newborn, juvenile, and adult sharks can be caught year round, resulting on a potential overfishing impact to all populations of growth stages of the T-shark.

Based on my observations the last 10 years and the fact that we humans lack certain levels of self control (i.e. how we got into the current economic mess

) ), I am for a limit on the number kept and setting the maximum size of 150 lbs that can be kept by recreational fisherman. I choose a maximum size as the idea is to increase survival of the breeding class and that a small/medium T-shark (<150 lbs) is plenty of good meat.

Please note that I am strong believer that recreational fisherman are low on the scale of threats to saltwater fish populations; habitat destruction, pollution, and commercial gillnet/longline fishing are far and away the biggest threats.

Thanks again for starting this topic and I look forward to reading other peoples responses.

Kevin

09-01-2010, 08:10 PM	#8
Ohana Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Coto de Caza, CA Posts: 155	FISHIONADO: Thanks for starting this topic. It is definitely something worth having a good discussion about. Having fished for Threshers for the last 10 years, I would say that the fishery from recreational fisherman pressure has increased due to the increase in number of boaters (especially in the middle of the last decade) and the relatively close inshore nature of the sharks has made them easy to target for a larger percentage of fisherman (no long travel using up expensive gas). I know that when I first started catch and release of T-sharks, you rarely heard about it on the local fishing boards, but as more people started posting the knowledge of this fishery, when was the optimum time to fish, techniques/locations, and the ease at catching them, it seemed like every spring everyone who had a boat was out trolling for T-sharks and were showing off their catch being weighed rather then releasing the sharks. Does this have an impact on the fishery? Hard to say as removal of certain numbers may actually improve the health of the population as there is less competition for food/ decreased cannibalization increasing the recruitment size. But considering that T-sharks give birth to living young, their litter size is small (2 to 4 pups), and that they take between 7 and 13 years to reach sexual maturity would make them more vulnerable to overfishing then other large gamefish, such as marlin, swordfish, and white seabass which produce large number of eggs and mature at a faster rate. As off the Southern California coast it appears to be the T-shark pupping grounds, both newborn, juvenile, and adult sharks can be caught year round, resulting on a potential overfishing impact to all populations of growth stages of the T-shark. Based on my observations the last 10 years and the fact that we humans lack certain levels of self control (i.e. how we got into the current economic mess ) ), I am for a limit on the number kept and setting the maximum size of 150 lbs that can be kept by recreational fisherman. I choose a maximum size as the idea is to increase survival of the breeding class and that a small/medium T-shark (<150 lbs) is plenty of good meat. Please note that I am strong believer that recreational fisherman are low on the scale of threats to saltwater fish populations; habitat destruction, pollution, and commercial gillnet/longline fishing are far and away the biggest threats. Thanks again for starting this topic and I look forward to reading other peoples responses. Kevin